This invention relates to interactive wagering, and more particularly, to interactive wagering applications with configurable on-screen information areas and enhanced wager creation features.
Wagering is a popular leisure activity. For example, many racing fans wager on events such as horse, dog, and harness racing. However, it may be inconvenient to attend racing events in person. Not all racing fans have sufficient time to visit racetracks as often as they would like and some fans have difficulties in obtaining suitable transportation to the track. Off-track betting establishments are available for fans who cannot attend racing events in person, but fans must still travel to the off-track betting establishments.
As a result, systems have been developed in which fans may place off-track wagers using personal computers connected to the Internet, standard telephones, or set-top boxes.
It is an object of the present invention to improve such systems by providing an interactive wagering system with configurable on-screen information areas and enhanced wager creation features.
An interactive wagering system is provided. An interactive wagering application is implemented using the system.
The interactive wagering application may provide wager creation screens for the user to use in creating wagers. The wager creation screens may have information areas. The information areas may be associated with menu items or options on the wager creation screens. For example, on a racetrack selection menu screen an information area may be associated with each available racetrack. On a race selection screen, there may be an information area associated with each available race option. Other screens such as wager type selection screens, wager amount selection screens, and horse selection screens, may also be provided with information areas.
Personnel associated with racetracks or other content creators may create and modify the content for the information areas. For example, the content creators may change the content in an information area using a web page interface or any other suitable system. The web page interface may allow the content creators to type text into a data entry field that corresponds to the information area on the wager creation screen. Material may also be dragged and dropped into the data entry field. A preview function may be provided that allows the content creator to preview the content of the screens including the content of the information areas.
If desired, personnel associated with the interactive wagering application may ensure that the content supplied by the content creator is satisfactory, before the content is provided to users. Content may also be created by personnel associated with the interactive wagering application.
Changes to the content of the information areas may be made without any need to recompile the code for the interactive wagering application.
Various different types of content may be displayed in the information areas. For example, information on the current weather at a particular racetrack may be displayed in an information area adjacent to the listing for that racetrack on a track selection screen. Promotional information may also be included in an information area. For example, a special offer that is available at a particular track may be displayed in an information area associated with that track on a track selection menu. Information areas may also be used to display information on upcoming events, track hours, directions, etc. If a track is closed due to rain, information announcing the track closure may be displayed in an information region adjacent to the track name. On a horse selection menu, the information region adjacent to each selectable horse option may be used for odds, jockey information, trainer information, etc. An information region may be used when listing a betting interest that includes two horses. Information for the first horse (e.g., 1a) may be placed in the horse name area. Information for the second horse (e.g., horse 1b) may be placed into the information area adjacent to the information region containing the first horse name.
If desired, the content of the information areas may be periodically rotated. For example, new content may be displayed in the information regions every second or every few seconds.
If desired, the information areas may be made interactive. For example, when a user has highlighted a desired information area, the user may press a remote control xe2x80x9cinfoxe2x80x9d key to obtain additional information related to the content of the highlighted information area.
If multiple horses are associated with a single horse number (e.g., three horses 2a, 2b, and 2c are associated with slot No. 2), the notation xe2x80x9cmultiple runnersxe2x80x9d may be placed in the horse name field. The associated information area may be used to display a message such as xe2x80x9cpress info for details.xe2x80x9d If the user highlights the multiple runners field and presses info, the additional information on each of the multiple runners may be provided.
Sometimes a user may desire to exit the interactive wagering application in the midst of creating a wager. The interactive wagering application may automatically record the user""s position within the interactive wagering application. When the user subsequently restarts the interactive wagering application, the interactive wagering application may allow the user to automatically resume the wager creation process where the user left off. Moreover, the user""s most frequently chosen wager criteria or the user""s last wager may be used to assist the user when creating a wager. When the user is creating a wager, the interactive wagering application may assume that the wagering criteria (e.g., the selected track, race, wager type, horses, and wager amount) that were last used or were most frequently used reflect the user""s preferences. Accordingly, these wagering criteria may be used as defaults when the interactive wagering application is populating fields in the wager creation screens. As an example, if the user""s last wager was made at the track Churchill Downs, the next time that the interactive wagering application presents the track selection menu to the user, the track Churchill Downs may be preselected in the track selection menu. The user therefore need not search for the Churchill Downs entry when selecting the track for the wager.
A wagering ticket may be provided on the wager creation screens. As the wager is built, the entries in the wagering ticket may be updated. For example, after the user has selected a racetrack, the racetrack may be added to the wagering ticket. If a wager is created with multiple runners (e.g., an exacta wager), information is provided for each runner.
If the user creates a second wager by adding an additional runner to one portion of the wager (e.g., by selecting a second horse for a win wager or the like), the wagering ticket may be used to display information on both the selected wager amount (e.g., $2) and the total amount of the wager (e.g., $4).
In the horse selection menu when creating a wager, horse numbers may be provided in color. Moreover, the color of each horse""s number in the horse selection menu may be matched to the official saddle blanket colors used in racing. For example, the graphic image of the number one for horse number one may be red, because that is the standard blanket color for runner number 1. The graphic image of the number two for horse number two may be white, because white is the standard blanket color for runner number 2, etc.
Further features of the invention, its nature and various advantages will be more apparent from the accompanying drawings and the following detailed description of the preferred embodiments.